ossettweather.com
Saturday 15 December 2012
December’s Mildest Day
Strange isn’t it but following one of the coldest days for some time Saturday produced the mildest day of this December with a high of 10.6°C and a low of 3.9°C. It gave us an average for the day of 7.5°C. For good measure it was sunny too although a little breezy at times.
As the weather had been a bit iffy I’d decided to have a go at bread making by leaving the dough to rise in the fridge over night. I still don’t understand why this works and I’m amazed that after a night in the fridge my bread dough looks like this.
Sadly there’s no pictures of the finished bread as I cocked up the baking. I’m certain it sounded hollow when tapped underneath, however the dough wasn’t cooked in the centre of the loaf. The birds might be in for a treat though. I must try harder next time!
Sunday 16 December 2012
Carrot Harvesting
Sunday was another mild day with a little rain late into the evening.
We needed a trip to the plot as we were out of fresh vegetables. Luckily we picked a sunny spell during the afternoon for our harvesting. First on the list to harvest were some carrots provided that the straw placed over the roots a few weeks ago had done its job and kept the roots frost free.
At least the straw had stayed in place even though we’ve had some gale force winds since the roots were protected. It’s a bit like nature’s version of Velcro in the way it holds together and isn’t blown away in bits by strong winds.
So far December hasn’t been too bad for rainfall, and at the mid point of the month, we’ve had a little bit less than we might expect on average for the month. That’s not to say the ground isn’t still very wet. Whilst I wouldn’t describe it as waterlogged it is very soggy. Digging carrots, parsnips and leeks was a muddy job.
The carrots on the left are as lifted with as much soil as possible removed by hand but still covered in soil and mud. They were given a quick wash in some very cold water and they looked a little more ready for the kitchen. This variety is Autumn King. one we grow every year, which doesn’t normally let us down either for quantity or quality.
The remainder of our Sunday harvest is detailed here on our December harvesting page.
Monday 17 December 2012
Green Manure Survives
Monday was dull and mild with some rain in the evening but not bad for December.
Whilst we were harvesting vegetables at the weekend it was a chance to check out
how our green manure had coped with the recent spell of frosty weather. It had managed
to survive the odd frosty night on 08 December when the temperature got down to -
The good news is that the green manure has coped with the cold spell pretty well and I think it is quite nice to see some beds covered in green, (that isn’t weed growth), at this time of year rather than bare earth. No doubt though the worst of the winter weather is still to come.
If you haven’t seen this blackbird on my Facebook page it’s posted on YouTube and shown below. The sunflower hearts had become damp so I took them out of the feeder and left them on the patio table to dry out. This blackbird just couldn’t resist the opportunity and came right up to the window to help herself to rich pickings.
Tuesday - Friday 18 to 21 December 2012
Not Good!
The weather and I haven’t been good this week. We’ve had plenty of rain falling on already sodden ground leading to more flooding problems but so far not too bad locally. Over the last couple of days the temperature has remained remarkable constant between 4.6°C and 5.9°C.
We seem to have spent much of our time at Pinderfields hospital over the last few days. This has all been due to me having somewhat uncontrollable nose bleeds for most of the week. I thought that things had been sorted out on Wednesday when the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor cauterised my nose in order to stop it bleeding. Unfortunately it hasn’t done the trick so I’ll be back again on Saturday to see if they can sort me out.
Saturday - Tuesday 22 to 27 December 2012
Going Cold Turkey
Not the best of Christmases with Christmas Eve and up to midday Christmas Day spent in Pinderfields hospital with a troublesome nose bleed or rather a whole series of them going on for about a week. I’m hoping that the source of the problem has now been found and cauterised.
I’ve a list of things not to do. No hot drinks or hot food and no spicy food. No lifting or bending over and one that’s pretty tricky is to sleep sitting up. So far so good.
Christmas dinner was a cold turkey salad but I didn’t bother with any cold sprouts or parsnips.
The weather has remained in its wet Atlantic phase for the last week or so with plenty of wet and windy weather. The rain has been persistent without being torrential and the monthly total looks like finishing just above expected, bearing in mind that December is on average one of our wettest months.
That strange looking temperature peak on Sunday 23 December gave us our highest temperature of the month. Bizarrely it happened at 02:30 in the morning so I guess few people were around to notice it.
There doesn’t seem to be any change in the forecast up to the start of the new year with wet and windy conditions set to continue.
Saturday - Tuesday 22 to 27 December 2012
Was a Cold Wet Start to Blame?
As gardener’s we are all aware of just how tricky growing conditions were in 2012. As I’m a bit limited in what I can do at the moment and the fact that the weather’s pretty miserable too I decided to mess around with some weather data to see if 2012 was really that bad. The easiest comparison to look at is high and low temperatures throughout the year. I decided to compare 2012 with 2011 to see if there was any noticeable difference.
The key months on the plot for me probably start mid way through March to June when lots of seed are sown directly into the plot or young pot grown plants are set out in their final positions.
I’ve added some dotted lines to help comparisons. In April and May in 2011 night time temperatures remained mostly above 5°C whereas in 2012 most night time temperatures were below 5°C. If we use 15°C as a day time comparison then once again 2012 was much colder through this 3 month period than 2011.
Then of course there was lots of rain in April too. It fell on dry ground but with double the monthly average it got the growing season off to a cold wet start that it never really recovered from.
Lets hope for something much better in 2013.